Apple released iOS 8.3 today with several bug fixes and a few new additions. As a point upgrade, there aren’t many sweeping changes to iOS, but there are a couple of cool features for users, and it has already led to some exciting new opportunities for developers.

Diverse Emojis

One of the biggest changes in iOS 8.3 is the changed emoji keyboard, which includes over 300 characters and a diverse selection of skin colors. Apple also added many more relationship- and gadget-related Emojis.

Connectivity Bug Fixes

There were a number of connectivity bugs in iOS 8.2. For example, users were often asked to repeatedly enter their Wi-Fi login credentials and were even intermittently disconnected from Wi-Fi networks. Another issue with disconnected hands-free calls randomly has been fixed.

Orientation / Rotation Fixes

iOS 8.3 fixes several orientation and rotation features. The update addresses an issue that prevents the screen from rotating back to portrait after rotating to landscape.

Wireless CarPlay Support

CarPlay is still not extremely popular, but it is growing with a massive number of car manufacturers having signed up to produce CarPlay compatible cars over then next year or so. iOS 8.3 helps make the iPhone ready for these cars, enabling users to connect to CarPlay wirelessly.

Touch ID

Apple introduced a lot of opportunities for third parties to become more deeply integrated to the operating system, including with Touch ID. iOS 8 will allow for developers to use Touch ID to provide authentication services to users within apps.

Credit card scanning

For developers, the ability to integrate image recognition and credit card scanning will be a game changer for e-commerce companies.

Siri Knows More Languages

Siri now has additional language and country support. Here is a list of the additions: English (India, New Zealand), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Swedish (Sweden), Thai (Thailand) and Turkish (Turkey). Some of the dictation languages that have been added are: Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and Hebrew (Israel).

Pocket App has tremendous experience developing iOS apps and looks forward to develop for the exciting new features.